Mainly Murals with Dorothy Yanez: Tucson’s Treasured Tour Guide
Dive into the vibrant colors and stories of Tucson with Dorothy N. Yanez, an accomplished author, devoted tour guide, and a passionate native Tucsonan. In our latest podcast episode, Dorothy takes us through the winding streets of Tucson, detailing its rich history, the art that adorns its walls, and the inspiration behind her captivating books.
Highlights:
- Discover the heart and soul behind Tucson’s iconic murals.
- Learn about Dorothy’s journey from the city of Tucson to the corridors of JW Marriott.
- Unravel the history and significance of the Presidio Museum.
- Get an exclusive peek into the making of her five intriguing books.
- Understand the intricate distinction between graffiti, tagging, and murals.
As Tucson’s vibrant tapestry unfolds with every episode of Life Along the Streetcar, we’re eager to cater our content to your curiosity! 🌵
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Transcript (Unedited)
Tom Heath
Good morning. It’s a beautiful Sunday in the Old Pueblo and you’re listening to KTDT Tucson. Thank you for spending a part of your brunch hour with us on your downtown Tucson community -sponsored, all -volunteer -powered rock and roll radio station. This week we’re going to speak with Dorothy Yanez. She’s a tour guide with the Presidio Museum and after retirement from the city of Tucson, she’s kind of kept her interest in Tucson alive by researching public art, murals, and all kinds of fascinating artistic structures in the downtown Tucson area. Today is October 29th, 2023. My name is Tom Heath, and you are listening to Life Along the Streetcar. Each and every Sunday our focus is on social, cultural, and economic impacts inside of Tucson’s urban core, and we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about. From a mountain to the University of Arizona and all stops in between you get the inside track right here on at 99 .1 FM streaming on downtownradio .org also available on your iPhone
Tom Heath
or Android using our very own downtown radio Tucson app. If you want to get us on the show interacting us with us on Facebook and Instagram is probably the easiest and you can also head over to our website if you want more information about our show, our book, listen to past episodes or find that contact button, and of course we invite you to listen to the podcast on all kinds of platforms, including Spotify, iTunes, iHeartRadio, and asking your smart speaker to play Life Along the Streetcar podcast. October flew by, and I think we’re finally getting a little bit of cool weather, so yippee for that, and the festivals, the events, they’re all just coming up so fast. I was just on a conference call with a lot of the merchants from downtown and the number of projects and festivals and events over the next six weeks is just amazing here in Tucson, but we’re used to that. 10 West kicks off next week. If you want to learn more, head over to our website. You can Google or put in the search bar
Tom Heath
there, 10 West, and you’ll hear our very first show. We featured 10 West and then a couple of years ago, maybe last year, but a couple of years ago we did an update and got to talk about all the amazing things happening for that festival. And this year I’m kind of excited because through the Tucson Gallery we’re actually gonna have a booth at the Street Fest happening on Saturday the 4th. It’s up there near the Corbett’s, the new Corbett’s restaurant and Pickleball Court 6th and 7th area. So lifelong streetcar, we’ll have our books there. I’ll be there. I’ll have a few artists come in from the gallery. should be a fun day on November 4th, hoping for some more good weather.
Tom Heath
Our guest today is a woman who has had a few careers. She’s worked for the city, she’s also worked in the hospitality industry, and now she is an author. She’s written a couple of books and she’s got a couple more coming out. She retired from the city, very, very informed with what’s happening, and has kind of focused her attention to history through the Presidio Museum, as well as public art. She does a tour called Mainly Murals, highlighting the murals mainly, and also other public artworks. So we had a chance to talk to her about her books and her tours. Her name is Dorothy Yanez, and this is just another fabulous person showing how great Tucson is.
Tom Heath
So I’m here with Dorothy N. Yanez, an author here in Tucson, a tour guide, a native Tucsonan, and an absolute gem of knowledge here in Tucson. on, so excited that we get to connect. I think I’ve seen your work and somewhat stalked you, but didn’t realize you were you. So welcome. Thanks for joining us.
Dorothy Yanez
Well, thank you. That’s the highest compliment. And I’m very humbled and very pleased to be here. Thank you.
Tom Heath
And so you are a native Tucsonan.
Dorothy Yanez
Yes, I am, born and raised, and I’ve had an opportunity to travel throughout the United States and some portion of the world, because I’ve been in hospitality about 20 years.
Tom Heath
Okay. So you were with a brand, weren’t you?
Dorothy Yanez
What was the question?
Tom Heath
You were with a brand.
Dorothy Yanez
I was an actual employee of the JW Marriott prior to the pandemic, for 15 years. And then after the pandemic, we became independent contractors.
Tom Heath
I saw Dorothea Yanez, but I didn’t make the connection that that was you because I thought you worked for the city of Tucson.
Dorothy Yanez
I did. I worked for the city of Tucson two weeks after I turned 18 and I retired when I was 52 after 34 years with the city of Tucson. And then I wanted to do something other than supervise budgets and writing administrative things. And I wanted to do, I was very passionate, or I am very passionate about Tucson. I think, again, I’ve been all over the United States, all 50 states and some of the world, And I’m really passionate about being here in Tucson. I think this is the best place to work and to live. And so I’m very grateful to be here.
Tom Heath
So I just learned you’re not very good at retiring, because you retired from the city, you retired from Marriott, and you’re just, you know, you don’t like to stay busy. You don’t know how to be, to relax and be, aren’t you supposed to be golfing or something at this point?
Dorothy Yanez
You know, giving these tours of the murals and working with the Presidio San Agustin Del Tucson Presidio Museum is I’ve been with them since 2004 and I get such pleasure out of being and being involved with them that that to me is like being on the golf course.
Tom Heath
I can relate to that there’s a there’s a sense of satisfaction and relaxation that comes even though we’re out working it and so you let’s talk about here let’s we got so many things to cover, because you, you’re a tour guide, and you’re an author. And you’ve written at this point, two books, correct? I’ve written, I just published my fifth book. Oh, my gosh. So let’s talk. Let’s walk through those. What are these books
Dorothy Yanez
about? So the first book was about the Presidio when it was first open. That was 11 years ago. And then I reprinted it. During COVID, I wrote a book about my memoirs. And that one is called I love my life. And it is about, like standard operating procedures on how to be a tour guide, a concierge. And then what it was like being an extrovert. And then during COVID, what it was like not being able to interact with people. And I got let go from the Marriott, the JW Marriott was no longer part of that family. And that was about 443 pages. Then the next book was the, let’s see, two Presidio books, I love my life. Then the downtown mural and public art, all the murals that are on the tour. Then this next one, the last one, number five is the Presidio. But I got asked by fourth grade teachers, there is nothing in the gift shop at the Presidio Museum that is geared towards fourth graders about the history of Tucson. So I took out a lot of the yada, yada, yada, blew up the pictures, gave a little
Dorothy Yanez
bit more larger font about the history of Tucson, and that will come out, let’s see, I published it a week ago. It takes six to eight weeks to get the hard copies, and that is a hard copy book.
Tom Heath
And so that’ll be out just in time for the holidays.
Dorothy Yanez
I believe the first week in December is when I will get it at my house.
Tom Heath
Okay. And where do you sell these books?
Dorothy Yanez
Right, Neal. They are at the online at the amazon .com. They are also at the Presidio Museum. They’re also at the Visitor Center. They’re going to be at the proper.
Tom Heath
Yeah, we’re kind of excited about that. We’ve got a lot of the muralists here and people always want to know more about the muralists and your book about downtown murals. It’s mainly murals and public art, right?
Dorothy Yanez
Right, and it is a two -hour tour, approximately two miles, and it is handicapped accessible and wheelchair accessible. And then I talk about what the behind the scenes, what was the artist thinking, and we kind of, I ask questions of the people on the tour, and then they can ask me questions too.
Tom Heath
Yeah, so, I mean, being in the gallery with these, with some of the artists that you cover, it’s going to be a natural fit. think we’re excited to have the book in here. And then, you know, just being, we’ve interviewed a few people that have had connections with the Presidio, but they’re all different. You know, some were at the Turquoise Trail or some with the Living History, some are with the Operations of the Museum, some are the Tour Guides. And there’s so many people that make that Presidio so special. I don’t think people realize the number of hours that are volunteered to highlight the history of Tucson and bring that forward. That to me is an amazing endeavor that’s operating out of this really non -distinct building in downtown.
Dorothy Yanez
That is true. And the museum itself is just the northeast corner of August 20th, 1775. It was actually 11 acres, and this museum is only the northeast corner.
Tom Heath
Yeah. If you’re walking, if you go downtown, I know you do murals, but do you talk about the extent of the Presidio? because I know they have the markers out as to where the Presidio’s full size was. Is that part of your tour? I know it’s part of some of their tours, but do you do that on your mural tours?
Dorothy Yanez
That’s a good question. No. I leave that towards the Turquoise Trail, and I just talk about the murals.
Tom Heath
And I’m assuming your murals, your tour, does it start at the Presidio?
Dorothy Yanez
Both tours start at the Presidio, and there’s approximately 25 different murals in each of them. So the public art tours will start and go clockwise, starting at Old Town Artisans, where Johanna Martinez and Luck Salway did on the north side of Old Town Artisans, and then we continue to go clockwise, approximately two miles. So we start at the museum and end. Mainly murals also starts at the museum, and we go counterclockwise, starting with Joe Padgick’s El Tour de Tucson, and then we go clockwise and again both of those are approximately 25 different murals, approximately two miles, and the bigger the group it takes a little bit
Tom Heath
more than two hours. Way back to finish up our interview with Dorothea Yanez in just a moment. First I want to remind you that you’re listening to Life Along the Streetcar on Downtown Radio 99 .1 FM and streaming on downtownradio .org.
Tom Heath
Welcome back. We’re gonna finish up our interview with that Dorothea is gonna talk about some different types of artwork out there, maybe some of the muralists, and a big event coming up here in the near future with some graffiti artists that are gonna be out there doing some spray painting stuff down there on Congress across from the Monica. I’ve gotten to know a lot about Tucson in the last six years as I’ve been doing this show, and I go on tours, and people ask me, because I also give tours, like why do you go on tours if you give tours? Because there is so much to know and there are people out there that are experts in the field or they spent all their time studying murals or they’re archaeologists and they’ve actually participated in some of these excavations and they know things well beyond what I could just know through my experiences. So I think it’s very important if you’re serious about some of this to get that educated view and just before we got
Tom Heath
in the air you were telling me about some of the things that you were covering, and not just about, okay, here’s a picture that Joe Padgett did, but you get into the style, the meaning, the history, how it came about. I think that’s so important.
Dorothy Yanez
That is true. I try to contact the muralists. And be aware, there’s a difference between tagging graffiti, and there’s some very accomplished graffiti is out there, because we have rock the art coming up the first week in November. And that we can talk about if you want.
Tom Heath
Was that what they did at the parking lot across from the Monaco?
Dorothy Yanez
That is correct. That is. And what they are going to do is whitewash all those murals. So a graffitiist, when they get permission, then it becomes a mural. So they’re going to whitewash all of those except the Linda Ronstadt, Danny Martin, Skeleton Woman, the three sisters, that one is commissioned, and the one Sacred Heart that’s at Cafe 54. So there’ll be four murals that will not get whitewashed and then they’re gonna bring in, let’s see Josh Prashad told me that last year they had 65 different graffitiists, four from Tucson They provide the paint, the scaffolding, and the food and then they let them create their letter art.
Tom Heath
Yeah, I’m glad they’re keeping the Linda Ronstadt. That to me is one of the most impressive things I’ve seen done with a spray can. And I just, I mean, all of the work is beautiful, but that one is just in and of itself, it just looks like such a detailed, like someone hand painted each piece of it. And the fact that it was done with spray paint is still unbelievable to me. But you said something very important in there. I think that’s the difference between our tours. You said you do your best to talk to the artists and get a good sense of it. I make stories up. Now, mine are very entertaining, but that’s probably why you wanna have somebody like yourself that’s actually knowledgeable telling these. Do you find that the muralists are open and willing to talk to you, or are they like, I’m over this, I get too many calls for comment?
Dorothy Yanez
Not at all. I think the muralists are very gracious, and I hate bothering them when they are working because it takes time to paint murals, and they’ll have to come down off the scaffolding to talk to me, but they’re extremely gracious. And I got to talk to Nikki Glenn just the other day. She’s got the mural in front of the MLK. Just everybody has just been so gracious and very humbling, and I’m excited to talk to all of them.
Tom Heath
That’s fantastic. But it’s beyond murals though, and you know, mainly murals was what I was interested in because that’s, from the gallery side where I spent a lot of my time, that was exciting to me. But it’s also a lot of the public art that you talk about that are like structures and sculptures and things of that nature. You get more into things than just the paintings on the walls.
Dorothy Yanez
That is true. There’s a Joe O ‘Connell that is Toby. That is the Griffin. That is Kitty Corner from the Children’s Museum. And that used to be the Carnegie Free Library. And on top, it was three stories, and the Griffin was on top of the third story. Unfortunately, there was a fire, the griffin got destroyed, so Joe Connell put out this griffin. So the griffin is, the front part is the eagle, and the back part is the lion. And people don’t know that he put footprints in the concrete, and you can follow those footprints all the way back to the Children’s Museum. That is pretty cool.
Tom Heath
I love that there that is that is something that you’ll see that great you point that Griffin out to people. Oh, I know where that is. And then do you do you see the path that he took and what are you talking about?
Dorothy Yanez
And you know about the diving lady?
Tom Heath
No, tell me about the diving lady.
Dorothy Yanez
It is now. Let’s see. So that is at the corner of let’s see, it’s it’s it’s just east of the Griffin.
Tom Heath
Yeah, it’s like on 12th and 6th. That’s correct. It’s now like the spa, the training space, the Avidus training area.
Dorothy Yanez
That is correct. And that is really important because that was lawyer offices at one time, and in 1970 they wanted to restore the neon sign of the diving lady. But because there was a light ordinance, they couldn’t do it. They went in front of the mayor and council, got the okay from the observatories to be able to reignite the neon sign, and now Tucson has got an abundance of neon signs because these lawyers were kind enough and considerate enough to restore the Diving Lady.
Tom Heath
So that set a precedent, so now like the San Carlos Apartments that has the big neon and a lot of the neon revitalization came from that. Because the Diving Lady, she was part of, it was a hotel originally, right? That is correct. And so then the attorneys took it over in the 70s, which, I mean, if you think about downtown in the 70s, it probably wasn’t an extremely artistic center, maybe. So the fact that they wanted to revive that, I think is fantastic.
Dorothy Yanez
And that’s a question I get all the time also from people on the tour, is does Tucson have, what gets Tucson to get involved in getting the muralists and the public art? Do we have more than other cities? That’s a really good question. but we really do support our artists. There’s way over a hundred different murals and public art just in the downtown area. And I think that is just fantastic that we were supporting it. Do you know why we are supporting all these muralists and artists that was back in 2019?
Tom Heath
Tell me more.
Dorothy Yanez
Because we had a great deal of tagging. So they got funding and the Tucson Arts Brigade sponsored eight different muralists to produce their art in certain different areas, and now it’s just an abundance of art. And it really does help cut down on tagging.
Tom Heath
Yeah, there definitely seems to be a lot of respect for these artworks. I forgot which one of the muralists we had on the show talking about that, and I asked about why Tucson was so important with murals. and I think it was Joe Padgett, but I might be missing, ascribing it to the wrong person, but he said that there are a few things. One is that the weather allows us to do a lot, but the respect, because the murals are up there longer, they don’t get pulled down. Building owners tend to respect them. The graffiti tends to respect them. So Tucson becomes a great place to do a mural for those reasons.
Dorothy Yanez
I was not aware of that. I’m always learning something new. I love this. It’s a good day.
Tom Heath
Remember, I make up a lot of stories, so it could just be something I wanted it to be true. So I threw Joe under the bus there, but it’s, it’s, it’s fun to, to get to know these individuals that are so iconic in such a, a human way. And I think you do that through helping understand their art. You know, you were talking about some of the styles where, you know, this particular artist is really good at shadowing. And this particular artist is really focused on cycling and helping people understand that sometimes you don’t even just see the name on the bottom of the mural. You can just see the mural and know, oh yeah.
Dorothy Yanez
Like Danny Martin, if you see a black and white mural with the Sonoran Desert behind it, like swirls or something, you know it’s a Danny Martin. Or these very large faces that is at the La Placita and I was going down Speedway and just west of the freeway, and I saw Alfonso’s. You can just, you learn the styles. And that’s really, I have a degree in business management. I could barely draw stick figures. But that doesn’t discount how much I really appreciate somebody being able to get their thoughts on a canvas, on a wall. And I’m just in awe of these people. Just in awe.
Tom Heath
You and I share a lot of passions, and we also share a lot of lack of talent in painting. So maybe that’s why we appreciate them so much. How do you do that? That’s just amazing to me, how you get something from someone’s head and make it look like what they want it to look like. So your tours, do you find that people are Tucsonans, or do you get people from out of town? Are they a mix?
Dorothy Yanez
That’s a really good question. I’m going to say about 80 % are from out of town, and about 20 % are within Tucson. That they don’t come downtown very much, and they feel safer in a group. And that when they’re on the tour, they get behind the scenes information. That’s a good question.
Tom Heath
Yeah. That’s something that when I’ve done tours, or I do things that highlight, we tend to see more people from out of town wanting to know about it. And we’re thinking, how do we get more Tucsonans, you know, because that’s, I mean, this show, where this show came from, was I was a Tucsonan who didn’t explore until I found out that there’s a museum in the middle of downtown that fires off a cannon on Second Saturdays. And I thought, how do I not know that? And that led to this exploration. And that’s literally what launched this entire effort, was that cannon at the Presidio. But there’s so many people that I talked to, and I tell them that story, and they look me like, I didn’t know that. And I’m like, that’s kind of my point. Like we be a tourist in Tucson, get out, take a tour, go with Homer and get an archeological tour, you know, get with Dorothy and look at an art, find something that’s your passion, grab some friends, come downtown and, you know, grab, grab some brunch and, and
Tom Heath
walk around. You do, you do the tours, you’re going to walk by plenty of good places to eat. And I’m sure you point some of those out for them too.
Dorothy Yanez
That is true. There is downtown Tucson. It’s very safe. And I want to bring that to everyone’s attention and I believe the Presidio Museum has about 18 different walking tours in the downtown area. Homer Till, there’s Katie, Mario Trejo is just a wealth of information. Seventh -generation Tucsonan and his memory and information is top -notch. There’s a lot of us who are giving, Ken Scoville is doing tours out at Fort Lowell and these are people who are really passionate about Tucson and really care about getting that information out there. And I’m, I’m very humbled and very pleased that I’m part of this.
Tom Heath
Well, Dorothy Yanez is author of five books. One will be coming out very soon focused on children. Dorothy, thank you so much for your time.
Dorothy Yanez
Thank you so much for inviting me here. I very, very much appreciate it.
Tom Heath
Dorothy Yanez, you can catch her on her tours. She does mainly murals. You can also see her at the Presidio Museum as a part of her volunteer efforts as well. My name is Tom Heath. You are listening to Life Along the Streetcar and Downtown Radio 99 .1 FM and we’re available for streaming on downtownradio .org You’re listening to KTDT Tucson, Arizona 99 .1 FM Downtown Radio.
Tom Heath
well thanks for uh sitting through episode 231 with us here No, I’m sorry 271 just cut off like almost an entire year there 271 is this episode number as we just passed our six -year mark on downtown radio Thanks for
Tom Heath
all of that support coming up next on downtown a radio We’ve got Ted Przelski with words and work as he discusses the labor movement and talks to writers here around Tucson And then it’s top of the hour Ty Logan heavy mental fabulous show and then kicking back at one o ‘clock to the music with a variety of music musical genres this afternoon and evening and our rock mix starts up tomorrow morning with Paleo Dave at 7 a .m. and as a reminder we are all volunteers the only 10 ,000 DJs we’ve got I think it’s only 50 but they put out the amount of work of 10 ,000 DJs all volunteers can check them all out on our on our station’s website, downtownradio .org. And while you’re there, maybe hit the donate button. And if you’re looking to contribute to the show here, wanna maybe suggest a topic or an interview that we should be delving into, best way to do that is to tag us on something in Instagram and Facebook, make an introduction if you can, but just make us aware, we’ll do some research, we’ll
Tom Heath
dig around and find out what we can and we’d love to get some of these topics to air. Our website lifealongstreetcar .org has a contact button and also more information about the show. Well as always we want to thank Ryan Hood for the privilege of using their song Dillinger Days to start the show and we’re going to leave you with an artist named I believe it’s Eman Sonata and it’s from a 2020 EP called In Harmony and in honor of our guest today the song is called Painted Walls. I hope you have a great week and tune in next Sunday for more life along the streetcar.
